2012 International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control

Using Multi-Vendor IEDs for IEC 61850

Interoperability and HMI-SCADA Applications
Shi-Jaw Chen, Yi-Hsiang Wang , Chia-Hung Lin, Tung-Sheng Zhan, Rung-Fang Chang Ya-Chin Chang
Department of Greenergy Science and Technology/ Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Kao Yuan University Cheng Shiu University
Kaohsiung City, Taiwan(R.O.C.) Kaohsiung City, Taiwan(R.O.C.)
[email protected]

between the IEDs and between the IEDs and the control
Abstract--The paper describes the IEC 61850 communication substation computer, and IEC 61850 based substations end up
protocol based prototyping platform, and implements Generic with difficulties not only in interlinking IEDs from different
Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) interoperability vendors, but implementing high-speed peer to peer
tests between multi-vendor Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). communication between IEDs to accomplish GOOSE
In addition, the proposed platform also includes human machine interoperability [2]. With IEC 61850 and GOOSE can be
interface(HMI) that monitors overall IEDs via Ethernet network.
implemented, as hardwired signal paths are replaced by a
The proposed prototyping platform has been completed, it can
really provide the IEC 61850-based Supervision Control and Ethernet network and Substation can be expanded easily to
Data Acquisition (SCADA) and verify the current status of accommodate future system growth.
GOOSE message based on available IEDs. The obvious benefits The organization of this paper is as follows: In Section-II,
foreseen by implementing the case studies are the IEDs will not architecture of prototyping platform is described. The GOOSE
be limited to original vendor for future expansion and interoperability and HMI-SCADA system are presented in
monitoring a system through HMI-SCADA with IEC 61850 will Section-III. The case studies are implemented in Section-IV.
be as easy as integrating a new IED into the system. Section-V concludes the paper.
Index Terms—IEC 61850 communication protocol, Intelligent
Electronic Device (IED), Generic Object Oriented Substation II. ARCHITECTURE OF PROTOTYPING PLATFORM
Event (GOOSE), Interoperability, Human Machine
Interface(HMI), Supervision Control and Data Acquisition The paper proposes a practical demonstration of the
(SCADA) IEC61850 in terms of multi-vendor interoperability testing
and HMI-SCADA applications. Figure 1 illustrates the layout
I. INTRODUCTION of the proposed prototyping platform at bay level and station
In the legacy substation, inter-IED communication requires level. The list for hardware and software using in this platform
a large amount of hard-wires interconnections and low speed are shown in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively. As shown in
master/slave serial communication for signaling and exchange Table 2, some of the configuration tools(software) are free
of information. With the releasing of IEC 61850, combined (including VAMPSET, VAMP SCD editor and DIGSI), but
various IEDs and Ethernet network based integrated PCM600 and CCT demand license files which are accessible
substation automation system (SAS) are becoming more from the vendor[3-6].
popular. IEC 61850 communication protocol, an international
standard which was developed by the International
Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 57 (IEC
TC 57)[1]. Before publishing the IEC 61850, although a lot of
communication protocols were released in order to increase
the quality of communication, but it is very difficult to
integrate protocols into different IEDs manufactured by
different vendors. They always use their own proprietary
protocol. Thus, costly and complicated gateways (i.e. protocol
converters) are necessary for different IED vendors. IEC
61850, an open protocol, combines them and facilitates the
GOOSE interoperability and no gateways are required among
the IEDs.
IEC 61850 also provides a complete information model Figure 1. Layout of the proposed platform
and related services for SAS to implement relay protection,
monitoring, controlling and measuring. IEC 61850 part 6 (IEC
61850-6)[1] defines Substation Configuration Language (SCL)
for the configuration of equipment within substations. SCL
describes the interrelationship of the IEDs to each other and to
the substation itself. The IEC 61850 is used to communicate

978-0-7695-4655-1/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE 743

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DOI 10.1109/IS3C.2012.193
 messages, which is important for accurate event recording.
TABLE I
GOOSE messages are transmitted periodically to increase the
THE LIST OF HARDWARE USING IN THE PLATFORM
probability of delivery, as well as every time the message
IED vendor IED type version
contents change. Therefore, GOOSE message is utilized for
ABB REF630 v1.0 horizontal and vertical communication of SAS, as well as
SIEMENS 7SJ801 v4.62 inter-IED data transmission. According to authors’
VAMP VAMP-51 v10.38 experiences, different IED vendors publishing their GOOSE
others type/spec. function
messages in slightly different ways and the way in which third
party IEDs subscribe to these messages requires some
Desktop PC WinXP For HMI
modification.
Laptop WinXP For IED Configuration
  ICD-
ICD-
Ethernet switch MOXA PT-7710 RJ45/Optical fiber ports  ICD-
File
File
File

Optical fiber Cable LC /ST connectors REF630(LC),

 ICD-  SSD-
Network Cable RJ-45 For IED &PC File File

TABLE II
THE LIST OF SOFTWARE USING IN THE PLATFORM
IED vendor configuration tool version function
 SCD-

ABB PCM600 v2.3 IED configuration tool File

CCT v4.1.3 System configuration

Figure 2. SCL files and their configuration procedure
SIEMENS DIGSI v4.82 IED configuration tool
In the paper, Elipse E3 software[8] is conducted to design
VAMP VAMPSET v2.2.7 IED configuration tool
IEC 61850 based Human Machine Interface (HMI) for
VAMP SCD v1.0.0. System configuration achieving real-time monitoring, control and data acquisition.
others software version function E3 reads and writes data from the IEDs, which implement the
Elipse Elipse E3 v3.5 HMI-SCADA IEC 61850 available in each one of them that can be publisher
Wireshark Wireshark v1.4 packet analyzer or subscriber. Because of the use of TCP/IP, the HMI may be
moved around easily and plugged into any Ethernet switch
during commissioning to display the data of the whole
platform.
III. GOOSE INTEROPERABILITY AND HMI-SCADA SYSTEM
SCL uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to IV. CASE STUDIES
configure substation network’s topology and IEDs and it is
capable of describing substation structures and IED functions. In order to give a clear description of the proposed
The SCL files cover the IED capability description (ICD file), platform, a physical connection for practical demonstration
the single line diagram with the allocated functions (system shown in Figure 3 is used in this section, and simulation
specification description as SSD file), the overall system results of four cases are presented. First three cases belong to
configuration description (SCD file) and the configured IED GOOSE interoperability issue. Final case is a practical
description (CID file). By configuring individual vendor’s simulation of HMI-SCADA for reading/writing GOOSE
IEDs to obtain ICD files is necessary for completing system message and three-phase current from IEDs.
configuration. Various SCL configuration description files
and their configuration procedures are shown in Figure 2. The
SCL files provide overall information as to how the IEDs are
configured to obtain ICD or CID files, and how complete
system configuration among different vendors to obtain SCD
files, and what GOOSE messages will be published and
subscribed, and thus GOOSE interoperability is achieved.
GOOSE interoperability means the ability of two or more
IEDs from the same vendor, or different vendors, to exchange
information and use that information for correct execution of
specified functions[7]. Due to shortage of page space, the
paper mainly focuses on multi-vendor GOOSE
interoperability. In practice, the GOOSE issue from multi- Figure 3. A physical connection for proposed platform
vendor IEDs is far more complex than from the same vendor
ones. IEC 61850 supports GOOSE for exchange of data and
status between IEDs over the Ethernet without having to wire Case 1: REF630 and VAMP 51 both are publishers, but
separate link for each IED [2]and GOOSE takes advantages of 7SJ801 is a subscriber.
the speed of Ethernet network and supports real-time IED configuration tools can be used to assign the

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characters of publisher or subscriber for GOOSE message.
The procedure of how to configure both individual IEDs and
system between three different vendors are highlighted so that
ICD or CID and SCD files can be generated as shown in
Figure 4. By configuring individual IED is to obtain the ICD
file, and it is necessary for generating SCD files. In order to
generate SCD files and define GOOSE mapping, IED specific
configuration tool are also available for system configuration.

Figure 7. Configuring REF630 for linking the GCB from publisher -7SJ801

Case 3: REF630 and 7SJ801 both are publishers, but VAMP-

51 is a subscriber.
Similarly, the relationship to generate SCL files is
highlighted again as shown in Figure 8. As shown in Figure 9,
the internal address(IND) of VAMP-51 maps to GOOSE
message from publishers- 7SJ801.

Figure 4. The relationship of SCL files for case 1

In order to receive GOOSE control block(GCB) from

publisher REF630, 7SJ801 needs to be configured for
subscribing the GOOSE message as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 8. The relationship of SCL files for case 3

Figure 5. 7SJ801 subscribes the GOOSE message from REF 630

Case 2: VAMP 51 and 7SJ801 both are publishers, but

REF630 is a subscriber.
Similarly, the relationship to generate SCL files is
highlighted as shown in Figure 6. And configuring REF630 Figure 9. Mapping IND of VAMP-51 to GOOSE message from 7SJ801
for linking the GCB from publisher -7SJ801 is shown in
Figure 7.
Case 4: HMI-SCADA applications
This case is a practical simulation for reading/writing
GOOSE message and three-phase current values from IEDs.
Firstly, all IEDs need to map data that is ready to upload for
E3. In the case of VAMP-51, logic nodes of GOOSE message
and three-phase current values are mapped to dataset1 and
dataset2, respectively. Then, dataset1 and dataset2 are
configured to Buffer Control Block(BRCB) and Unbuffer
Control Block(URCB), respectively. Finally, configured SCL
file is imported to IED for uploading reports. The whole
procedure for uploading reports is shown in Figure 10. The
Figure 6. The relationship of SCL files for case 2 procedure of other IEDs uploads reports for E3 is in a similar
fashion. The HMI-indicator for identifying GOOSE message
that is interoperable is designed as shown in Figure 11. As

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shown in Figure 12, the function key of VAMP-51 is designed
on HMI. The main window of IEC61850 based HMI-SCADA
has been completed as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. The main window of IEC61850 based HMI-SCADA

V. CONCLUSION
IEC 61850 is the fastest substation automation
communication protocol currently available in the marketplace.
To gain the knowledge and experience is one of the crucial
steps towards the implementation of IEC 61850 based multi-
Figure 10. Configuring VAMP-51 for uploading reports to E3 vendor platform. In the paper, IEC 61850 based platform
demonstrates the important performance simulation to
emphasis the GOOSE interoperability between three different
IED vendors including ABB, VAMP and SIEMENS. And
Elipse E3 software is used to meet the requirement for HMI-
SCADA system. As one of the future options for extension,
the similar portable platform [9] will be developed for
practical applications .

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors greatly acknowledge the financial supports
from National Science Council of Taiwan under Grants NSC
98-2622-E-244-008-CC3. This study is also conducted under
Grants NSC 100-3113-P-110 -004 which is subsidized by the
National Science Council of the Republic of China.
Figure 11. Designing HMI-indicator for displaying GOOSE message that is
interoperable
.

REFERENCES
[1] IEC61850, “ Communication networks and systems in substations”,2004.
[2] S. Joshi, “Utilization of GOOSE in MV substation”, 16th National Power
Systems Conference, pp.323-328,15th-17th Dec. 2010.
[3] VAMP 50/VAMP 51/VAMP 52 Operation and configuration instructions,
Version 006, VAMP Ltd, May 2010.
[4] VAMP RELAYS IEC 61850 interface Configuration instructions, Version
002, VAMP Ltd, Sep. 2010.
[5] 7SJ80x Manual, Version A4, SIEMENS, May 2010.
[6] 630 series Technical Manual, Revision: B,ABB, March 2011.
[7] H. Krings, P. Wittlinger, A. Schröder et al, “Investigating Interoperability
for IEC 61850 Technology”, Test Report, 2010.
[8] E3 User’s manual, version3.2, Elipse Software Ltd, November 2009.
[9] B. Stojcevski, A. Kalam, G. Pretorius et al, “IEC61850 portable testing
unit capable of multi-vendor interoperability protection testing”,
SEAPAC 2011, 10-11,March 2011.

Figure 12. Designing the function key of VAMP-51

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